Author: Chris Johnson

My 95-year-old mother-in-law has a phrase she uses for when she thinks you are making fun of her – “Are you poking Charlie at me?” – she will say. It probably originated as a latter-day distortion of the verbally less genteel “poke bogey,” a colloquialism for “poking fun” in use at the turn of the 20th Century. Charlie Hebdo has a long history of poking Charlie at religious and political institutions. Satirical journalism is what the Charlie Hebdo magazine is all about. But is satire good for us, even if it offends another’s beliefs?

The answer to the above question is ‘yes’—as I will explain later in this three-part post. First though, let’s look into the reaction of the majority of human beings to this Parisian Mass Event other than the initial abhorrence.

Much of the furor in response to the events in Paris of the last week revolves around the issue of “Freedom of Speech,” or as the French have it, “Liberté d’expression.” This post goes into the spiritual origins of this issue and how our Freedom of Expression is a sacrosanct principle underpinning our existence in the physical world. In the spirit of the theme of this Blog, I will also attempt to uncover the deeper message contained within this and other “acts of terrorism” of late as it pertains to our Shift in consciousness.

We can regard the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as an event calculated (at a higher level of human consciousness) to shock us into a realization that our (collectively held) thoughts and beliefs surrounding social equality are still in desperate need of revision.

The epidemic is a traumatic “mass event” designed to change and modify our collective thinking, and eventually our core beliefs, in relation to the issue of egalitarianism. Integral to our overall “shift in consciousness,” this event aims to highlight a profoundly disturbing element within our belief systems, which needs to be corrected before we can evolve as a species able to operate at a cooperative, global level of awareness.

Seth on the nature of epidemics:

The question of epidemics, for example, cannot be answered from a biological standpoint alone. It involves great sweeping psychological attitudes on the part of many, and meets the needs and desires of those involved—needs which, in your terms, arise in a framework of religious, psychological, and cultural realities that cannot be isolated from biological results. (Seth, The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events: A Seth Book. Roberts, J. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.; 1981. p.20.)

“Danse Macabre” by Michael Wolgemut

The Ebola crisis is, as was the Black Death in the 14th Century, a physical outpouring of the need within us to effect a psychological change—a change in the way we think that will reverberate through to the very core of our belief systems. The Ebola crisis is one, perhaps of many crises (we usually need a few), that wants us to look within (once again) and examine the core beliefs we hold about being a human being. Remember that our core beliefs* form the filter through which we express our Selves as a species.

A crisis in any domain of human activity is asking us to look at our beliefs that underpin the expression of that activity.

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is a scaled down version if you will of the Black Death of the Middle Ages. The message then was to look to our collective belief systems and make the changes necessary to make our developing pockets of civilization (countries) more egalitarian—thus making life healthier and more fulfilling for a greater percentage of the population.

The same message underscores this Ebola outbreak. Only this time we are talking about the absolute necessity for egalitarianism to be a fixed principle within our collective mind as we evolve into a global civilization.

Originating in Asia, the Black Death was an epidemic that became a pandemic in China, the Middle East, and Europe between 1346 and 1353. Generally known as “The Great Plague” at the time, the bacterium responsible was carried by fleas that infested the fur of the common black rat, which in turn infested the habitats and settlements of humans. The fleas feed on blood and pass on the pathogen as they do so.

Responsible for the deaths of perhaps 100 million people of a world population of around 450 million, this “mass event” was a classic example of a globally shared experience meant to awaken medieval humanity to the need for change.

It was one of the first “mass events” instigated at a higher level of consciousness designed to produce a cognitive shift (changes in the way we think) in the collective mind of our species.

Imagine yourself for a moment being at this higher level of consciousness that prompted this mass event